A review by mkcarr
Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers

adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Wow! That was dark AF. made the first book look like child’s play! Major, major trigger warnings, some expected from the hints in book 1, and some so jaw-dropping to the point it was almost unnecessary. Like:
Did d’albrecht have to kill her baby?!?? Did she have to have been pregnant at all?!
I did find the book engaging and surprising at times… I wouldn’t have expected where the plot went. And I don’t mean that about the more “shocking” twists, but rather the more gentle ones (like
Beast kidnapping her rather than sending her back to dalbrecht multiple times<\>). The weak spot was the romance… I like the latter half being about the redemptive power of love, but I felt like she fell a bit too quickly. I would have believed there was love there, but not necessarily of the romantic kind. Circling back on those triggering parts:
Sybella delivering all that upsetting info in the final part of the book basically in a couple long monologues just felt a little too exposition-y… the book had already done a decent job of showing her trauma  and showing how twisted her family was, so it felt like a step in the wrong direction to info dump that way. And it was a lot to take in as a reader.
in general, from my own limited perspective, I do think sybella was a good portrayal of trauma and PTSD. Oh also
I hope book 3 explains why the abbess was so wretched to her and hated her that much to send her to her death??? Bc WTF?
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